That offence is contained in 55 Geo. III. c. 185, s. 7, by virtue of which enactment it was formerly also a capital crime to forge or utter the stamps provided for marking any such plate, or to fraudulently remove such stamps from one piece of such plate to another, or privately and secretly to use such stamps with intent to defraud the king. The punishment of death for these last-mentioned offences was repealed, however, by 11 Geo. IV. & 1 Wm. IV. c. 66, s. 1 (as to the forging and uttering), and by 4 & 5 Viet. c. 56, s. 1 (as to the removing and fraudulently using) ; but by some inadvertence (for it is clear that it can never have been intended) the offence of being possessed, with out lawful excuse, of forged stamps for marking gold or silver plate (the least criminal of all the acts specified in 55 Geo. III. c. 185,s. 7) is still left capital.
There are two other enactments of capital offences, which also do not appear to have been repealed. The 2 Geo. II. c. 25, s. 2, and the 12 Geo. III. c. 48, a. 1, make it capital for offenders convicted under the provisions of those statutes, to escape or break out of prison ; and these enactments do not seem to have been wholly repealed, either expressly or by implication. The Criminal Law Commissioners (7th Report) say, ' Although many Acts have been passed which punish prison breach by penalties not capital, yet these seem to be confined to particular gaols and prisons, and not to affect the general enactments above referred to, as regarding offenders against their provisions con fined in other prisons." 4. Misdenzeanors.—The punishment in the case of misdemeanors, where none is specially provided by statute, is geuerally fine and imprisonment. The statutable punishments vary from transportation for life (for which penal servitude has been substituted) to fine or irnprisoment From what has been stated, it will be seen that the circumstance, so far as punishment is concerned, which distinguishes misdemeanors from all the other classes of offences, is the absence of forfeiture as a necessary consequence of conviction. The distinction between priemu mires and felonies (which term, it should be remarked, in its largest sense, includes treasons, on account of the forfeiture which that class of crimes occasions), is, that the forfeiture which ensues upon a con viction of the former is, as before observed, in pursuance of statutablo provisions; whereas in the latter case it is a common law consequence of the offence, and follows as a matter of course whenever a crime is declared to be a felony. There appears to be no distinction as regards punishment, independently of special statutable enactment, between non-capital felonies (the term is used here in its ordinary restricted sense) and the non-capital treason above described ; but the difference between felonies and treasons when punishable with death is very eensielatable. In the owe of felonies the offender, upon attainder,
ferfriti to the crown the profile only of such freehold and copyhold Iamb as be had at the time of committing the offence, during his life, and after his death, his copyholds In fee-ample are forfeited to the lord of the manor ; and even where attainted of murder, though his free hold s.tatas in fee-simple fail after his death, It Is not as a consequence of the law of forfeiture, Lut because they escheat for want of heirs capable of succeeding to them, owing to Ids blood being corrupted by the attainder: and it Is on account of auch estates escheating and not IseIng forfeited that they go to the lord of the fee (that is, subject to the crown's year. slay and waste), and not to the crown, unless there appears to be no intermediate lord between the offender and the crown, In a lath event the crown takes as ultimate lord of the fee. In the ease of treason, however, the offender upon attainder, instead of forfeiting to the crown the profits merely of such freehold lands as he had at the time of committing the offence, during his life, forfeits all freehold estates of inheritance, as well those in fee-tail as those in fee-simple. and not only such as he had at the time of the commission of the offence., but those also which he may acquire at any time after ward.; and instead of forfeiting to the crown the profits of his copyholds during his life, and to the lord of the manor his copyholds in fee-simple only, he forfeits at once to the lord of the manor all the copyholds belonging to hirn• at the time the offence was committed. Where the offender is a male, his wife's dower is also forfeited to the crown, which is not the case in felony. It is to be observed that the crown is empowered (see 59 Geo. 111. c. 94) to restore the whole or any tart of any lands or hereditamenta to which it becomes entitled by escheat or forfeiture to the family of the offender, a provision which has greatly mitigated the harshness of the law of forfeiture. The Criminal Law Commissioners however recommended the entire abolition of the confiscation of property as a necessary incident to convictions for treason or felony (' Seventh Report on Criminal Law'). No forfeiture follows a summary conviction for felony under the Juvenile Offenders act (10 & 11 Viet. e. 82). The difference between the judgment of death for treason and that for felony requires no comment.